Faves! Plastic Drinkware: Cups, Glasses & Tumblers

If you’re in the market for plastic glasses or tumblers of any sort you’re in luck. Plastic drinkware is no longer a seasonal line. We retail buyers source it year-round and it commands a proud place as an everyday essential on store shelves and kitchen tables. Chalk it up to busy lifestyles, the rise of better quality plastics, or simply the variety of styles available — plastic drinkware has hit prime time.

And we should know! For a brief period, we stocked one of the largest selections of plastic drinkware in the US — all sourced by yours truly. We still carry our prime picks; Bentley Drinkware, Americana, Ultra, Retro, and a few other specialty lines, but most brands now sell direct through Amazon and other large online retailers, so we no longer stock them here.

No sour grapes, though. I still have many Top Picks among my former lines — here plastic drinkware reviews below will help you in your search for the perfect plastic glass.

Our Lines! Bentley Drinkware and Others…

Of course, I must start with my lines! These brands have been with us from the beginning and (thankfully!) the factories are uninterested in selling through the bigger online stores. Even if they did, you probably wouldn’t have the myriad choices we offer like by-the-piece purchasing and mix-and-match colors to your heart’s content. And did I mention quality? Every glass in our collection hits it out of the park for overall durability and dishwasher use – that’s why we still carry them. Best of all – they’re Made in the USA!

Strahl Plastic Drinkware

Strahl is another — fantastic — line with us from day one, but now sold on Amazon. Strahl makes quite a variety of plastic glasses — rocks tumblers, highballs, jumbo tumblers, and more — in several sizes, styles, and colors. It’s one of the oldest plastic drinkware brands and is often used by fine restaurants, resorts, and hotels for outdoor dining. It offers a very glass-like look and feel, great weight, and a hand-polished finish that’s really the best you’ll find. It’s made of virtually unbreakable, dishwasher-safe polycarbonate plastic and carries a 5-year warranty.

If choosing Strahl, I do advise using a regular (not sani-cycle) setting on the dishwasher. Actually this goes for any plastic drinkware you buy. 150 degrees Fahrenheit is the recommended limit for all dishwasher-safe plastics, and I have seen occasional cracking in Strahl’s thick tumbler base when washed in super-hot, high-end dishwashers. But – it’s warrantied and they do stand behind it, so you can buy Strahl plastic glasses with confidence!

Clarus Plastic Tumblers and Glasses

Clarus is a very reliable line with a few basic, everyday styles great for daily use. Made of unbreakable Tritan plastic right here in the US, it performs great in both home and commercial dishwashers and I don’t recall even one incident of cracking or breakage in the 5+ years we stocked this line. Clarus has a bit thicker wall than others on this list which gives it a nice weight – almost like heavier bistro-style glassware.

Prodyne Plastic Glasses

Prodyne is a terrific manufacturer of all sorts of plastic kitchenware and barware — and their glasses are no exception. They offer a variety of lines, including everyday looks in unbreakable, dishwasher-safe polycarbonate and decorative styles in less-expensive acrylic. We sold Prodyne’s Forever and Grand polycarbonate collections for years — in fact, many of our hotel and restaurant customers chose these lines over the pricier Strahl plastic drinkware and were very satisfied. As with Strahl, Prodyne’s polycarbonate glasses feature thick bases and we did get an occasional cracking report from customers using high-heat dishwashers. Again, avoiding the heated sani-cycles usually prevents this.

Tervis Tumblers and Signature Insulated Plastic Glasses

Insulated plastic glasses are everywhere these days, but two US-made lines rise to the top when it comes to quality – Tervis and Signature. We carried both for years and they’ve been around for decades, and maintain great reputations for standing behind products with free replacements if they ever leak. They each have a few basic sizes and styles but tons of decorative options – images, logos, full wraps, you name it! Accessories have become hot, too, like snap-on straw and coffee lids, slide-on handles, and Tervis even has sport bottle flip tops and martini shaker tops. Talk about do-all drinkware! Both lines have adjusted their glasses to fit in car cupholders, too, so if go-anywhere insulated travel tumblers are on your list, you really can’t go wrong with these brands.

Merritt Plastic Drinkware

Merritt employs a number of gifted artists to create some very high style, on-trend plastic tableware. They offer everything from melamine dinnerware sets to plastic drinking glasses in both unbreakable Tritan and slightly less durable (but very decorative) acrylic, like their best-selling Rainbow Collection. Merritt tends to change up their collection every 2-3 years so if you see something you like, you might consider buying a few extras — you may not find it a few years later. We carried a huge variety of Merritt products over the years — in fact, my everyday plates at home are by Merritt, and they’re still going strong after 12 years of daily use. Not bad for plastic dishes! I also have some of their newer Tritan plastic glasses (only about 3 years old) and love them. Merritt has been a customer pleaser for years and I’m sure will continue to be. Their products can be found online and also in some small department store chains like Stein Mart.

G.E.T and Carlisle Foodservice Plastic Glasses

We carried plastic drinkware made by these foodservice giants for over 15 years, selling to both commercial users and consumers with great success. If durability and longevity are your first concern, these companies’ products deliver. After all, they’re designed to withstand heavy use in hotels and restaurants — they’ll certainly take whatever you can dish out at home. If you’re looking for stackable drinkware, these brands have it — along with several lovely, glass-like tumbler and highball styles made for dressier bar and table service. The drawback? They’re only available by the case now that we no longer sell them by the piece. But, if you’re buying in the dozens, you can find fantastic plastic drinkware options at really good prices with these brands.

2 Comments

Mary Mcclaskey
on May 4, 2016 at 6:47 am

I am looking for the Kansas State University — grape tumblers with the Power Cat Decal. I purchased some several years ago but can not find them now.

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